Paris, late afternoon. * Perfectly clear day. *Cool but warm enough to sit outside. *Terrace of frightfully expensive café at which I have looked for years and where I have never stopped. *I stopped. *Sit there on the edge of the Ile Saint-Louis and you can see the Seine, the back of Notre Dame, the quais, and the sky. * They happen to serve ice cream and sorbet from the best ice cream place in Paris, Berthillon, which is around the corner. * I had a dish of three scoops: one cassis (black currant, a favorite since childhood), one pear (because pears are in season and oh my, what a taste) and one chestnut (yes, they make chestnut ice cream and by the way, French ice cream is not creamy and heavy like American ice cream) which turned out to have not only serious bits of chestnut in it but RUM. * At least that's what it tasted like. * I also had a little pot of excellent Darjeeling tea, and none of this teabag stuff, this was the real thing.
Then I went off to my second museum of the day, about which more later. * You can see why I needed the stop at the café. * One museum can wear you out.
People here just go to cafés and sit. * Outdoors, at the terrace. * They sit, they sip, they talk. Sometimes they don't talk. * Aaaah. * (Contented sigh.)
That sounds better than you may guess: triple sourbets? Black Currant one of them? Arggghhhh! I'd settle for that, I think. And good Darjeeling at a nice little spot? Rural MA can be a little like that: Sturbridge, Stockbridge, Great Barrington, Rural Connecticut, etc.
ReplyDeleteMust I look at Whole Foods? Sigh. Enjoying my own blend at home again in a new press pot as I wake up in CT.